Prince William county VA going encrypted as of 1/1/2021

[danesgs]

Heard this via the grapevine, if true is it PD or the entire system including 154.325 FD dispatch?

 

[N4VKF]

PD only. You beat me to the post. I guess we need a moderator to merge the threads.

 

[ironace]

Was this pushed back? I ask because I am still hearing PD traffic on the Broadcastify feed.

 

[kg4icg]

Still Hearing Prince William County police on my SDS200

 

[leonzo]

It has been pushed back but it will occur within the next 30 or so days.

 

[jthacker111]

Does anyone have any more info on this? A source that this is happening?

 

[leonzo]

All I can say publicly is, this is going to happen. While there has been a push back on the date, it is not an idea or possibility ., it is 100% going to happen. Same with Manassas City and Manassas Park PD's. Citizens reference those last two probably still have a chance to object through their elected officials but as for the County, its a done deal.

 

[jthacker111]

All I can say publicly is, this is going to happen. While there has been a push back on the date, it is not an idea or possibility ., it is 100% going to happen. Same with Manassas City and Manassas Park PD's. Citizens reference those last two probably still have a chance to object through their elected officials but as for the County, its a done deal.

I appreciate that information. I have reached out to one of the members of the Prince Willam BOCS and asked if there was anyone that I could speak with and voice my concerns. Unfortunately, I haven't heard back. Do you happen to know of anyone in the area I could maybe call or email?

Here is Prince William, we are going to be getting a new chief - as I'm sure you're aware of. The county's decision to switch to full encryption will not be a good look for the new chief. Even if he had little or nothing to do with the decision.

Thank you in advance for any information you may be able to send my way. I appreciate it!

 

[leonzo]

With reference to the County I think the only person you could make an argument to would be the new chief. He seems to want to be viewed as accessible and listening to residents of the county. So I would suggest reaching out to him or his office as soon as possible. I would also suggest a strategy of getting him to commit to keeping "dispatch" in the clear. Trying to argue against all encryption is futile as there are obviously times law enforcement needs to encrypt. If you would like further strategies to use contact me directly through a private message or my personal email address of Leonzo@hotmail.com.

 

[jthacker111]

With reference to the County I think the only person you could make an argument to would be the new chief. He seems to want to be viewed as accessible and listening to residents of the county. So I would suggest reaching out to him or his office as soon as possible. I would also suggest a strategy of getting him to commit to keeping "dispatch" in the clear. Trying to argue against all encryption is futile as there are obviously times law enforcement needs to encrypt. If you would like further strategies to use contact me directly through a private message or my personal email address of Leonzo@hotmail.com.

Thank you! I'll send you an email today. It seems as though it may be to late. They have switched to full encryption on the police channels today. Which is also the new chief's first day.

 

[johnrockie]

Hearing police traffic on the old channels again, looking at my trunk recorder it appears that the new channels and old are patched together as they both start up at the exact time , anyone know anything? There’s still a lot of encrypted traffic, looks like training channels.

 

[jthacker111]

Hearing police traffic on the old channels again, looking at my trunk recorder it appears that the new channels and old are patched together as they both start up at the exact time , anyone know anything? There’s still a lot of encrypted traffic, looks like training channels.View attachment 98355

That's what I'm hearing and seeing as well. The past two days they had it totally encrypted and couldn't hear anything. Just last night ( not sure what time exactly) they started patching the encrypted to the old talk groups. Thus, allowing for monitoring the dispatch channels. I did notice that they have kept full encryption on the 'ADMIN" channel that use to be open. No complaints from me on that. With the info they run on that channel, I'm surprised it wasn't encrypted before.

I have never heard of a system that has full encryption but patches it to non-encrypted before. That's new to me. I'm just happy to be listening again.

 

[fredva]

That's what I'm hearing and seeing as well. The past two days they had it totally encrypted and couldn't hear anything. Just last night ( not sure what time exactly) they started patching the encrypted to the old talk groups. Thus, allowing for monitoring the dispatch channels. I did notice that they have kept full encryption on the 'ADMIN" channel that use to be open. No complaints from me on that. With the info they run on that channel, I'm surprised it wasn't encrypted before.

I have never heard of a system that has full encryption but patches it to non-encrypted before. That's new to me. I'm just happy to be listening again.

Two possibilities come to mind: The patches are temporary while they work out some issue with encryption (maybe a few radios haven't gotten the encryption keys?). Or they changed their mind and have provided patches to open channels while they work on undoing the encryption. Not to be negative, but the first option seems more likely. It doesn't really make sense to apply encryption and then defeat the purpose in the long run.

 

[dlp85x]

It seemed that PWC PD was fully encrypted again for about an hour and a half this morning, but it is back to being unencrypted (including the admin channel, which was encrypted all week). FWIW, before today I only heard silence when the encrypted channels would pop up, but now I am hearing that mixed in with garbled speech. One officer earlier today asked dispatch if he was on "the old channel or the new one," but I didn't catch the response. Although I don't know what will happen, I figure PD will be fully encrypted soon, as there's a news article online that quotes the department spokesman saying that encryption has been in the works since 9/11 and that residents can follow their social media channels for updates. I just hope PWC FD stays in the clear. Several regional agencies have PD encrypted but their FD isn't, so there's hope.

 

[turnpike61]

It appears the move to Encryption in Prince William County is complete. Nothing in the clear (that I've noticed) for several days here on any PWPD channels.

 

[kg4icg]

I'm still hearing them, Logged as of 10:36AM this morning

 

[turnpike61]

Thanks - consistently, and using which CC?

 

[kg4icg]

Using Proscan on a Uniden SDS 200, logging all the transmissions, call from central dispatch just now I heard

 

[turnpike61]

Thanks. I will switch my SDS200 back. I've been listening in the shack on a P25RX, and have not heard anything recently.

 

[turnpike61]

Validated; still unencrypted. Interesting note is that if you download the RR DSD talkgroup list and load it into the P25RX, you will get no action on PW because the DSD list has two TG's listed for each PW service. One is "normal" and the other has "ENC" as a notation. I think those were blocking my P25RX, because once deleted, I am hearing PW again.

Thanks for weighing in and correcting me KG4ICG! Much appreciated.

73
K2PI